The "Islamic State" went on a killing spree for weeks in a town in Syria's central Homs province ahead of its retreat, according to a Syrian official. The killings raise fears of more revenge attacks as IS loses ground.
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Bodies of more than 60 Syrian civilians have been found in the central Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn, a senior Syrian official and activists said on Monday. The town was retaken from "Islamic State" militants by the Syrian army over the weekend.
"More than 60 were dead, while more than 100 others are missing, either kidnapped or killed," Homs province governor Talal Barazi confirmed in interviews with Reuters and the Associated Press news agencies.
Barazi said most of the victims had been government employees or members of Syria's ruling Baath party.
"It is a shocking massacre," he said, adding that the killings went on for the three weeks that IS held al-Qaryatayn.
Some of them were shot on the streets as the militants retreated. At least 35 bodies were found shot and dumped into a deep shaft.
Who's fighting in the Syria conflict?
Syria's civil war erupted out of the Arab Spring protests that swept much of the Middle East and North Africa in 2011. The conflict has since drawn in multiple warring factions from around the world.
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War with no end
Syria has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2011 after Syrian President Bashar Assad lost control over large parts of the country to multiple revolutionary groups. The conflict has since drawn in foreign powers and brought misery and death to Syrians.
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The dictator
Syria's army, officially known as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), is loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is fighting to restore the president's rule over the entire country. The SAA has been fighting alongside a number of pro-Assad militias such as the National Defense Force and has cooperated with military advisors from Russia and Iran, which back Assad.
Turkey, which is also part of the US-led coalition against IS, has actively supported rebels opposed to Assad. It has a tense relationship with its American allies over US cooperation with Kurdish fighters, who Ankara says are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighting in Turkey. Turkey has launched multiple military offensives targeting Kurdish militias.
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The eastern guardian
The Kremlin has proven to be a powerful friend to Assad. Russian air power and ground troops officially joined the fight in September 2015 after years of supplying the Syrian army. Moscow has come under fire from the international community for the high number of civilian casualties during its airstrikes. However, Russia's intervention turned the tide in war in favor of Assad.
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The western allies
A US-led coalition of more than 50 countries, including Germany, began targeting IS and other terrorist targets with airstrikes in late 2014. The anti-IS coalition has dealt major setbacks to the militant group. The US has more than a thousand special forces in the country backing the Syrian Democratic Forces.
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The rebels
The Free Syrian Army grew out of protests against the Assad regime that eventually turned violent. Along with other non-jihadist rebel groups, it seeks the ouster of President Assad and democratic elections. After suffering a number of defeats, many of its members defected to hardline militant groups. It garnered some support from the US and Turkey, but its strength has been greatly diminished.
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The resistance
Fighting between Syrian Kurds and Islamists has become its own conflict. The US-led coalition against the "Islamic State" has backed the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias. The Kurdish YPG militia is the main component of the SDF. The Kurds have had a tacit understanding with Assad.
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The new jihadists
"Islamic State" (IS) took advantage of regional chaos to capture vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Seeking to establish its own "caliphate," IS has become infamous for its fundamentalist brand of Islam and its mass atrocities. IS is on the brink of defeat after the US and Russia led separate military campaigns against the militant group.
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The old jihadists
IS is not the only terrorist group that has ravaged Syria. A number of jihadist militant groups are fighting in the conflict, warring against various rebel factions and the Assad regime. One of the main jihadist factions is Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which controls most of Idlib province and has ties with al-Qaeda.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Nusra Front on Twitter
The Persian shadow
Iran has supported Syria, its only Arab ally, for decades. Eager to maintain its ally, Tehran has provided Damascus with strategic assistance, military training and ground troops when the conflict emerged in 2011. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah also supports the Assad regime, fighting alongside Iranian forces and paramilitary groups in the country.
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A 'massacre'
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the discovery on Monday. According to its sources, at least 128 people had been murdered, 83 of them within 48 hours, before the town was recaptured by Syrian government forces. The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdurrahman, also called the killings a "massacre."
The Observatory said around 200 militants had been in the town and withdrew towards the desert areas in the eastern part of Homs province. The region neighbors the province of Deir el-Zour, where the government and US-backed forces are mounting an assault on some of the last IS strongholds in the country.
Al-Qaryatayn, which lies nearly 300 km (190 miles) west of Deir el-Zour, was first captured by the IS in August 2015. They used the strategically-important town to defend the historic city of Palmyra.
They lost control of the town to Russia-backed Syrian troops in less than a year only to recapture it again earlier this month.
ap/kms (Reuters, AP)
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